


Crossing A Line

by martianwahtney



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Awesome Carol Danvers, Awesome Harley Keener, Awesome Pepper Potts, BAMF Pepper Potts, Harley Keener Is Not Having This Bullshit, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark Friendship, James "Rhodey" Rhodes is a Good Bro, James Rhodes is a dork, Jessica Jones Is Here to Sass You, M/M, Maya Hansen as Harley Keeners Mom, Mob Boss AU, Mob Boss James Rhodes, Mutual Pining, Pining, Protective Harley Keener, Protective James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Protective Janet Van Dyne, Protective Pepper Potts, Rhodes is a Good Mob Boss who only goes after the corrupt, Sharing a Bed, Tony As Harleys Godfather and Uncle, Tony Stark Does Not Deserve This, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, gratuitous mentions of boy bands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-25 23:58:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,521
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17735114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/martianwahtney/pseuds/martianwahtney
Summary: Mob Boss James Rhodes (War Machine) sets his sights on Stark Industries, more than ready to expose the corruption of Obadiah Stane. He enlists the help of Tony Stark. It doesn't take Obadiah Stane very long to catch onto what Tony's up to and is tragically quick to do something about it.Rhodes will do whatever it takes to get Tony back and tear Obadiah down in the process.





	Crossing A Line

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Fill: S1- Sharing A Bed

Tony leaned down and rapped on the dark tinted window. He waited patiently while the person inside slowly lowered the window.  
  
“You two want some coffee?” Tony asked.  
  
“What?”  
  
_Playing dumb._  
  
“You have been following me for… almost a week now,”  
  
The two men in the car were silent. Tony grinned at them, a shark-like smile he saved for the worst of the media.  
  
“Listen, I’m sure you tried your best and that’s all your mob boss can really ask for at this point,” Tony added.  
  
“So, coffee?”  
  
The man rolled the window back up. Tony straightened, smiled to himself, and continued into the coffee shop.

  
  


Rhodes sat back in his seat, a small smile on his face. The Stark heir certainly was impressive.  
  
“How should we proceed?”  
  
“Keep on his tail,” Rhodes said, voice slow and measured.  
  
“10-4,”  
  
Rhodes ended the call and toyed with the phone for a moment. So far he hadn’t seen any indication that Stark was in on the backdealing of weapons, but there wasn’t any harm in making sure.  
  
“So how long are you going to keep this up?”  
  
“Another week at least,” Rhodes said, glancing at the woman in front of him.  
  
“All he ever does is go get coffee and gossip with that van Dyne girl,”  
  
Rhodes smiled softly.  
  
“We can never be too sure, right Danvers?”  
  
She arched an eyebrow at him, unimpressed as always.

  
  


Janet craned her neck over Tony to try and get a glimpse of the car that had been following him around for the past who knows how long.  
  
“How long has it been now?”  
  
“Three weeks,” Tony replied, stirring his coffee absentmindedly.  
  
“Are you actually going to _do_ something about it?” Jan asked.  
  
“Nah, it’s cute how hard they’re trying,” Tony responded.  
  
Jan eyed him suspiciously as she took a sip of her drink.  
  
“And they haven’t talked to you since you offered them coffee?”  
  
“Nope,”  
  
She hummed thoughtfully and took another sip of her coffee.  
  
“What do you think they want?”  
  
Tony shrugged.  
  
“Weapons, ransom, who knows,”  
  
“Well I look forward to reading about your great escape, and then creating your outfit for the party you’ll throw in your own honor for escaping,” Jan said.  
  
“It should be themed this time,” Tony said.  
  
“Masquerade?”  
  
“Well now that could be fun,” he agreed.  
  
“You could decorate the whole house,”  
  
Tony looked at his friend, he could easily see that she had at least half of the party already planned.  
  
“Even if you don’t get kidnapped we should throw this party,”  
  
“Whatever you want, Jan,” he promised.  
  
She beamed at him.  
  
“When are you free for a fitting?”  
  
“I just got fitted,”  
  
“These things change Tony!”  
  
He held up his hands in surrender.  
  
“I would be happy to go in for a fitting at your earliest convenience Ms. van Dyne,” Tony said, attempting to placate his friend.  
  
Jan preened at his response.  
  
“Alright, I think I should get going,” Tony said, drumming his empty cup against the table.  
  
“Maybe get kidnapped by the mob,” he added with a small smile.  
  
“O-or you could stay!”  
  
Tony narrowed his eyes, Jan didn’t usually protest when he wanted to leave.  
  
“Hank?”  
  
She deflated.  
  
“Well I’m definitely going to leave before Hank gets here,” Tony said as he stood.  
  
“One day you two will be friends,”  
  
“Sure, when he stops comparing me to Howard,” Tony responded with a shark-like smile.  
  
Jan sighed softly.  
  
“I avoid him so we don’t argue, so you _don’t_ give me that face,”  
  
Tony stooped down to kiss her head.  
  
“See you,”  
  
“Bye Tony,”  
  
Tony hardly took a step out the door when a voice called his name.  
  
“Mr. Stark,”  
  
Tony paused just outside his favorite coffee shop. The mob men were waiting for him, one held the back door of the car open for him. Tony glanced back at the coffee shop where Jan was, he could completely ignore the mob and return to his best friend, _or_ he could figure out what the mob wanted.  
  
“Well I sure hope you fellas know that SI doesn’t pay ransom,” Tony told them as he slid into the back of the car.  
  
The mob men remained silent. Tony arched an eyebrow and settled back in his seat, a small smirk on his face. Finally time to see what the mob wanted.  
  
The car eventually slid to a stop in front of a well-kept Victorian House. Tony thought it charming, something his mother would coo over. The back door swung open and he stepped out of the car. One of the men took Tony by his elbow and led him to the house.  
  
“You’re very gentle for people who do mob stuff,” Tony commented as he was led through the house.  
  
As expected, the mob men stayed silent.  
  
“Usually kidnappings are a little more violent,” Tony added.  
  
“By this point I’ve been beaten up already,”  
  
One of the men glanced at him.  
  
“No one ever seemed to believe Howard wouldn’t pay ransom,”  
  
“Though it _was_ always fun trying different ways to break out,” Tony said more to himself than to his mob men.  
  
In front of him, a giant set of double doors opened and Tony was led into an impressive room. It was an office filled with books and various military paraphernalia. In the middle stood a dark desk, papers scattered on it, behind the desk sat- the most beautiful man Tony had ever seen.  
  
He was all dark skin, dark eyes, dark suit, and he was lounging in what looked like a throne.  
  
“Jesus Christ,” Tony whispered.  
  
“Mr. Stark,” the man greeted.  
  
The mob men left the room, the massive doors closing with a quiet _click_.  
  
“So. You’re the one sending mob men to kidnap me,” Tony stated as he flopped down on a chair on the other side of the desk.  
  
“You’re not being kidnapped,”  
  
“Good. I’d hate to destroy this place when I escape,”  
  
The man smiled softly, a huff of laughter escaping him.  
  
“I’m James Rhodes,”  
  
“Well, you know who I am, obviously,” Tony said.  
  
“Obviously,” Rhodes agreed.  
  
“Well let’s get the ball rolling then. I’m not making weapons for the mob,”  
  
Rhodes tilted his head to the side, a smile growing on his face.  
  
“I don’t need you to,”  
  
“Then what am I doing here? And why have you had your little peons following me around?” Tony demanded.  
  
“Because SI is selling your weapons on the black market,”  
  
Rhodes watched him carefully but Tony’s face remained passive. He swallowed thickly, his fingers clenching.  
  
“Well who is it? Did you track down the leak?” Tony asked.  
  
“Obadiah Stane,” Rhodes told him.  
  
The kid looked like he’d been sucker punched.  
  
“O-obie wouldn’t,”  
  
“All the information we have been gathering points to a higher up doing this. If it’s not you then it’s Stane,”  
  
Rhodes watched the emotions fly across Tony’s face until he went carefully blank.  
  
“So what happens next? You put a hit on Obie?” Tony asked, wincing as he spoke.  
  
“We tear him down. Expose his corruption,” Rhodes said.  
  
“He’s going to know I’m up to something,”  
  
“You don’t have to do anything, Dr. Stark,”  
  
Tony’s cheeks seemed to darken ever so slightly.  
  
“I can’t stand by and let this happen. I can get you all the information you need. You can pull the trigger,” Tony said.  
  
“Very well Dr. Stark,”

  
  


Tony stepped into his Malibu house and leaned against the glass door.  
  
“ _Sir_?”  
  
“Start looking into Stane,” Tony said, his voice sounding hollow to his own ears.  
  
JARVIS was silent for a moment.  
  
“ _Sir_?” he asked again.  
  
“Just… do it J,”  
  
Tony headed down to his lab and started his research. He was hoping to find nothing, that Rhodes was wrong, that it was someone else, _anyone else_ but Obie. And then Tony stumbled upon a batch of defective weapons that went missing, and then another, and then another.  
  
He squeezed his eyes shut.  
  
“J, get me the number for James Rhodes, War Machine,” Tony said tiredly.

  
  


“Rhodes,” he answered into his phone.  
  
“I was hoping it was a joke,”  
  
Rhodes glanced at his phone to see an unsaved number.  
  
“Dr. Stark?” he asked.  
  
“Obie’s my god father, y’know? How can he be doing this?” Tony whispered.  
  
Rhodes sat back in his chair.  
  
“Dr. Stark-”  
  
“I had J flag everything that looked suspicious to him, and I haven’t told him anything about Obie, and it’s going back years,” Tony said.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Rhodes said, for lack of anything else to say.  
  
Tony exhaled heavily, the sound crackled in Rhodey’s ear.  
  
“Yea,” he said quietly.  
  
Rhodes opened his mouth more than once, trying to find the right words to say but he never found them.  
  
“Dr. Stark, if you nee-”  
  
“Tony,”  
  
Rhodes felt a smile pull at his lips.  
  
“Tony,” he amended.  
  
“If there’s anything you need-”  
  
“I’m fine,” Tony interrupted.  
  
“Are you?”  
  
“Always,”  
  
And then Rhodes heard the dial tone. 

  
  


Tony ended up calling Rhodes almost every night, it wasn’t always to talk about what he found about Obie, but mostly it was Tony just talking. At Rhodes was a little annoyed but Tony won him over. Tony talked about his bots, about his AI, about Edwin and Ana Jarvis, and even about his friend Janet van Dyne. In turn, Rhodes found himself talking a little about his career in the Air Force, his best friend Carol Danvers, and even how he got into the Mob scene as a Mob Boss.  
  
It hardly took a week before Rhodes was genuinely looking forward to the phone calls he had with Tony. Carol, of course, never missed an opportunity to tease him about it.  
  
“You don’t have to look at everything, Tones, do you?”  
  
Tony sucked in a sharp breath.  
  
“Well, no. At this point I could make an algorithm for JARVIS to finish up, but I have to make myself look at this,”  
  
“Tones-”  
  
“I let this happen,”  
  
“How does a Air Force Colonel become a Mob Boss?” Tony asked.  
  
“Corruption, politics, it was too much. So I retired, took some of my closest friends with me and we started exposing the corrupt,” Rhodes said.  
  
“You make it sound easy,” Tony muttered.  
  
Rhodes couldn’t help but laugh.  
  
“Never easy,”  
  
“How’d you get saddled with War Machine?” Tony asked.  
  
“That was an Air Force name that got carried over, and now-”  
  
“Now you’re a household name,” Tony interrupted.  
  
There was a soft, British voice from Tony’s end to the call.  
  
“Thanks, J,” Tony said.  
  
“J has lovingly informed me that Alien is on,”  
  
“Is it?” Rhodes asked.  
  
“Channel 76, put it on that tv in your office and we can talk about how badass Ripley is,”  
  
Rhodes grinned and grabbed his remote to turn the tv on. He flipped through the channels till he found Alien.  
  
“Ready?” Tony asked.  
  
“Ready,” Rhodes confirmed.  
  
They watched the whole movie like that. Tony in his lab in his Malibu house, and Rhodes in his office, both of them wishing they were where the other was.  
  
“We should do this again,” Tony said quietly.  
  
“Maybe together, next time,”  
  
“Well sure honeypot, how do you feel about a Lord of the Rings marathon?”  
  
“Extended edition?” Rhodes asked, unable to keep a smile off his face.  
  
“Well obviously, what am I, a heathen?”  
  
Rhodes snorted.  
  
“You know just the way to my heart, Tones,”  
  
“It’s a date then,”  
  
“It’s a date,” Rhodes agreed.  
  
“I’ll talk to you tomorrow, right Tones?”  
  
“Course platypus, night,”  
  
“Night,”  
  
Rhodes ended the call, a smile still on his face.

  
  


Tony stared at Obie for a long moment.  
  
“Afghanistan?” Tony repeated for what felt like the millionth time.  
  
“The Jericho is ready to be shown off,” Obie replied.  
  
“Obie I really don’t think I should,” Tony said a touch desperately.  
  
“Nonsense my boy!”  
  
“No one knows the Jericho better than you,” Obie added.  
  
“Obie-”  
  
“The jet will be here in a few hours, go pack. I’ll take you to the airport myself,”  
  
Obadiah physically turned Tony around and gave him a gentle push in the general direction of his room.  
  
“Go on,”  
  
As he packed he tried to think of a way out. But there wasn’t one. Obie was in the living room which meant Tony couldn’t sneak by to get downstairs to the garage, or sneak past Obie to get to the front door.  
  
“J, call Rhodes,”  
  
Tony held the phone to his ear as he slipped into the bathroom.  
  
“Tones?”  
  
“Obie is sending me to Afghanistan to test a missile. He’s onto me,” Tony hissed.  
  
“How much time do you have?”  
  
“An hour? Obie’s in the living room which blows my chances of getting out without him noticing,”  
  
For a few moments, Rhodey was silent.  
  
“I have friends in Afghanistan, I’ll see if I can get them to you,” he said at last.  
  
Tony let out a full body sigh.  
  
“You’re the best honey pot,”  
  
“I know,”  
  
Tony ended the call. He was quick to pack up his things and meet Obie in the living room.  
  
“I thought I heard you talking to someone,” Obie started.  
  
“Maya,” Tony replied.  
  
“Just telling her I’m going to Afghanistan for work,”  
  
The drive to the jet port was awkwardly quiet. Tony kept 90% of his attention on his phone where he was actually texting Maya to let her know that he was on his way to Afghanistan for a weapons demo. He also sent a text to her son, Tony’s godson, Harley Keener, to let him know.  
  
“How long will I be in Afghanistan?” Tony asked.  
  
“A few days,” Obie said.  
  
“I’ve got it all sorted out, my boy,” Obie assured him.  
  
The car slid to a stop and Tony stepped out, bag in hand.  
  
“Only a few days,” he said to himself.  
  
Tony boarded the jet to Afghanistan. 

  
  


“Sir,”  
  
Rhodes glanced up from his computer, vision going slightly fuzzy as he peered above his glasses.  
  
“Have you seen the news?”  
  
Rhodes lifted his head to fully stare at Carol, giving her all the answer she needed to turn on the small tv he kept in his office.  
  
“My god,”  
  
Tony Stark had been abducted from his Hum-vee. There had been a firefight. Tony was missing. _Tony_ was missing and no one knew where he was. There wasn’t a single damn clue to where he was. He was just… gone.  
  
“W-” Rhodes swallowed, trying to work around the lump in his throat.  
  
How could Tony be missing?  
  
“The convoy was attacked, obviously set up by someone who knew where Tony was going to be,”  
  
“Obadiah,”  
  
As he spoke, the man himself appeared on screen, saying what a tragedy it was that Tony had been taken. Rhodey resisted the urge to throw something at the screen. Obadiah had done this, he had orchestrated the attack, the abduction, and whatever else was going to happen to Tony. And now Rhodes didn’t even have a way to prove it.  
  
“Fuck,” he hissed, lashing out and swiping at the pile of paperwork on his desk. Carol didn’t flinch as the papers exploded around her.  
  
“What do we do now?”  
  
“I don’t know,” Rhodes admitted.

  
  


A knock sounded at his office door.  
  
“Come in,”  
  
“Sir, there’s a woman here,”  
  
“Send her away,” Rhodes muttered, glaring at the latest news report. No one had any idea where Tony could be, the Army was starting to give up hope of finding Tony alive.  
  
“Sir... she’s insisting,”  
  
Rhodes glanced up, a frown etched on his face.  
  
“Who is she?” he asked.  
  
“Pepper Potts,”  
  
Rhodes tried not let how surprised he was show. Pepper Potts was Tony Starks’ PA. He had no idea how she had tracked him.  
  
“Bring her to me,”

  
  


Pepper Potts was all red hair and fire. She didn’t even wait for Rhodes to greet her before slinging accusations.  
  
“What did you do to him?” she hissed.  
  
“To who?” Rhodes asked, wanting to know how much she knew.  
  
“Tony,” her voice cracked ever so slightly.  
  
“I know you had something to do with this,”  
  
Rhodes tilted his head, taking the PA in. She could be useful, clearly loyal to Tony. Rhodes gestured to the seats in front of his desk. Pepper sat in the one on the left, chin held up defiantly.  
  
“What happened to him?” she demanded.  
  
“Obadiah Stane,”  
  
This obviously seemed to unsettle her, just as it had Tony.  
  
“What about him?”  
  
“I believe he’s been dealing Stark weapons on the black market, to be used against civilians,”  
  
Pepper stared at him for a moment. He could see her working something out in her mind, cool and calculated.  
  
“You _believe_ he is? Or you know?” she asked.  
  
“I know,”  
  
“How does Tony fit in?”  
  
“He’s the one that designs the weapons. I wanted to know how much he knew, if anything,” Rhodes told her.  
  
“Please tell me he didn’t know,” she whispered.  
  
“Mr. Stark was unaware of what Stane was doing with his weapons,”  
  
Pepper sagged in relief, her eyes rimmed red.  
  
“He started looking into it, to expose Stane. I think Stane caught wind of what Tony was up to and set up Afghanistan,”  
  
“So yes, I suppose this is my fault,” Rhodes said after a moment of silence.  
  
Pepper swiped at her nose gently.  
  
“What do I have to do?” she asked.  
  
“What?” Rhodes demanded, thrown off guard by her question.  
  
“What do you need? What kind of proof?”  
  
“Ms. Potts, I don’t think-”  
  
“Tony is god knows where. The longer he’s away the better Obadiah will be at hiding what he’s doing. So I’ll ask again, what do I have to do?”  
  
Rhodes leaned forward slightly.  
  
“Ms. Potts, Tony was only helping me for a few weeks before Stane caught wind that something wasn’t right. I can’t ask you-”  
  
“You’re not. I’m offering. If Stane is doing what you say he’s doing, then he needs to be stopped,” Pepper stared at him, daring him to tell her to stand down.  
  
“Very well Ms. Potts. I’ll send you everything Tony had on Stane,”  
  
Pepper nodded and pushed herself to her feet, smoothing her skirt out.  
  
“Find him,” she said quietly.  
  
She leveled him with a look and walked out of his office. Rhodes watched her go and sat back in his chair.  
  
The door behind her shut with a quiet click. Pepper stayed with her back to the door for a few moments, trying to get her thoughts in order. Obadiah Stane had orchestrated Afghanistan. Tony was missing because of his own godfather.  
  
She straightened her back and stepped off the the stoop. Obadiah god damn Stane. Pepper yanked her car door open, a hiss escaping her. She slid into her car, slammed the door, and sat. Fuck Obadiah. She slammed the palm of her hand against the steering wheel.  
  
“Maya,” she said aloud as she started the car.  
  
Maya would know what to do, or at the very least Pepper could tell Maya what really became of Tony Stark.  
  
Tony Stark had given her a job immediately after she threatened one of his staff. He had christened her with Pepper. She had worked for him for 10 years and loved every day of working for him, even when he didn’t sign any of the papers she sent his way.  
  
A broken laugh bubbled out of her. She pulled to a stop in front of Maya’s house and killed the engine with one resolution on her mind.  
  
Obadiah would burn for what he had done to Tony.  
  
“Pep!”  
  
Maya Hansen pulled the door open wider to let Pepper in.  
  
“He was working with the Mob to bring down Stane,” Pepper said hotly.  
  
Maya stared after her.  
  
“I’m sorry what?”  
  
“Tony!”  
  
Pepper threw her coat down on the couch.  
  
“He was working with the Mob-”  
  
“No I got that. I just meant… What?”  
  
Pepper huffed and nodded her head.  
  
“Stane is dealing SI weapons on the blackmarket. The fucking mob found out- the War Machine one and they sucked Tony into their mess. Obadiah found out and orchestrated the whole thing,” Pepper seethed.  
  
“The- War Machine?” Maya hissed.

  
  


Harley snuck out of his room and hovered near the entryway to the living room where is mom was talking with Pepper Potts.  
  
“The-War Machine?” his mom hissed.  
  
“They needed someone on the inside and now Tony’s god knows where,” Pepper said.  
  
Harley felt his breath catch in his throat. His uncle was still missing and no one knew where he was, and Harley didn’t think anyone was trying hard enough to find him. But now he had a name. War Machine. He’d heard rumors about War Machine’s mob, only taking down the corrupt.  
  
Harley quietly retreated to his room. It was almost blasphemous to think that his Uncle had been corrupt. Besides, Pepper said the Mob needed an inside man. He sat down his computer and turned it on. He needed to find War Machine. 

  
  


Rhodes was pulled out of his senseless daydreaming by a presence to his right. He assumed it to be the waiter until the kid sat across from him. Rhodes set his fork down on his plate.  
  
The young man sitting across from him looked hardly older that 16, fluffy brown hair, a scowl on his face, and piercing hazel eyes.  
  
Rhodes could not think of a single reason the kid was sitting across from him.  
  
“I assume this meeting has a purpose. Should we get on with it?” Rhodes asked.  
  
The kids jaw worked as if he wanted to say something but didn’t have the words.  
  
“What have you done with my u- what have you done with Tony?” the kid asked.  
  
The name made Rhodes instantly lose his appetite.  
  
“I heard my mom talk with Pepper. She mentioned you and Afghanistan, I know you had something to do with it,”  
  
The kid looked broken.  
  
“What’s your name, kid?”  
  
“Harley,”  
  
“Tony was helping me with something. Someone at SI was corrupted. He was sniffing them out when he got sent to Afghanistan. Whoever he found didn’t like what he was doing and ordered the kidnapping,” Rhodes said, carefully avoiding anything that could point the kid in the direction of Obadiah Stane.  
  
“I didn't mean for it to happen,” Rhodes said.  
  
The kids face contorted with anger at Rhodey’s words.  
  
“Well it did,”  
  
“And you should be the one to fix it. You started him on this. Find him,” Harley said.  
  
“I’m trying,”  
  
“Try harder,”  
  
Rhodes sighed.  
  
“Look, kid-” he started.  
  
“If I can find one of New York’s most notorious Mob Bosses you can find my uncle,” Harley shot back.  
  
Rhodes sat back in his chair as he kid got to his feet and walked back into the restaurant. Rhodes grabbed his phone.  
  
“Sir?”  
  
“Get me a PI. Someone… unconventional,” Rhodes said.  
  
“Yes, sir,”  
  
Rhodes hung up and continued on with his lunch. When he was finished he headed back to his car, his men at his heels. He was somewhat unsurprised to see a young woman with short brown hair leaning against his car. Rhodes held up his hand to keep them from confronting the woman.  
  
“Ms. van Dyne,” he called, striding forward to greet her.  
  
How many more of Tony’s acquaintances were going to threaten him?  
  
“Tony told me all about you and your men stalking him,” she started.  
  
She reached up to delicately fix his lapels and his tie.  
  
“You better hope you find him in one piece,” she said calmly.  
  
“I’m going to do whatever I can,” he said, acutely aware of how close her hands were to his neck.  
  
Janet finally took her eyes off of his tie to look at him.  
  
“Good,”  
  
She dropped her hands, shot him a blinding smile, and slipped past him to get to a car waiting on the other side of the parking lot.  
  
“Sir?”  
  
“Get me in contact with the Captain,” he said before sliding into his own car.

  
  


It was nearly a week before a woman showed up at his house. Black hair, leather jacket, and a give ‘em hell attitude.  
  
“Well hey Mr. Mob Boss,” she greeted.  
  
“I need you to get me all information on a boy named Harley, his mother knows Dr. Stark,”  
  
She stared at him for a minute, waiting for him to continue.  
  
“Harley,”  
  
The woman looked at him, unimpressed.  
  
“Is that all I have to go on?” she asked.  
  
“Look for a woman in Dr. Starks life that has a kid,” Rhodes offered.  
  
The woman rolled her eyes.  
  
“Well I get paid half now and half once I get results, so, you got a check book Mr. Mob Boss?” she asked.  
  
“I expect results, Ms. Jones,” he said as he started writing the check.  
  
“It’s Jessica. And you’ll get them,” she snapped as she snatched the check from him. Rhodes shook his head as she walked out of his office. She was going to give him some kind of hell.

  
  


“Ms. Potts if you don’t mind I have a suggestion,” Rhodes said.  
  
Pepper already looked unimpressed.  
  
“In an effort to ensure that Stane doesn’t harm you, I’d like to offer up protection,”  
  
“I already have protection,” she said.  
  
“You don’t even want to hear who I’m offering?” Rhodes asked, eyebrows shooting up toward his hairline.  
  
“Happy has been Tony’s bodyguard and driver since before I started. He won’t let anything bad happen to me, but I appreciate your worry,” she said.  
  
“If that’s all Colonel, I have a meeting with Phil Coulson from SHIELD, he seems eager to help our cause,” she said.  
  
“Best of luck Ms. Potts,”

  
  


“Danvers,” Rhodes said slowly.  
  
“What you’re hinting at is borderline ridiculous,” he said.  
  
“Trust me. I know, but there’s something not right about these guys. Sitwell, Rumlow, hell even Stern-”  
  
“The Senator?” Rhodes hissed.  
  
Carol nodded.  
  
“And you really think it’s-”  
  
The door swung open, interrupting what Rhodes was going to say.  
  
“I certainly hope you have a good reason for interrupting this meeting,” Rhodes said cooly.  
  
“I-It’s Jessica Jones, she’s back,”  
  
There was no way in hell Rhodes could let Jessica Jones sit in his office unattended, which means he would have to abandon the meeting to get the information from her.  
  
Rhodes adjusted his jacket. Carol sat back in her chair and smirked.  
  
“Excuse me,”  
  
He followed the man out of the conference room and to the foyer where Jessica Jones was lounging on a chair, a manila envelope on her lap.  
  
“Well hey there,”  
  
“I assume you found something then?” Rhodes asked.  
  
“Your boyfriends best friends kid,” Jessica reported, standing up and handing him the file on Harley Keener.  
  
Rhodes reached for it but she held it back.  
  
“The rest of my pay,”  
  
“Right,” Rhodes said, biting back a smile.  
  
“Miss Jones if you’ll follow me,”  
  
Jessica did as instructed and followed him through the house.  
  
“So what has you so interested in this boy?” Jessica asked.  
  
“Is that pertinent?”  
  
Jess grinned.  
  
“There’s better ways to get to know your boyfriend,”  
  
“Perhaps I’ll ask him if they recover him from Afghanistan,” Rhodes hissed back.  
  
He heard a _tsk_ noise from her as they reached his office. Jess immediately dropped into a seat in front of his desk.  
  
“If. Huh?” she asked.  
  
“I know that was to get me to shut up but that’s really no way to talk about your boyfriend,” Jessica said.  
  
Rhodes ripped the check from his checkbook and handed it to her. Jess tok the check and plopped the manila envelope onto the desk between them.  
  
“A pleasure, Ms. Jones,”  
  
She grinned at him, tucking her hands into the pockets of her leather jacket.  
  
“Damn right it was,”  
  
Rhodes watched her walk out of his office and he sat down in his chair, dark gaze falling on the envelope. He picked it up, eyebrows shooting up toward his hairline at the weight of it. Jessica really must’ve done her homework. 

  
  


_Harley Keener had been born to a 16 year old Maya Hanson and Gregory Keener, taking his father’s last name. At the age of 18 Maya attended MIT on full scholarship. After 2 years she met Tony Stark who had just started his first doctorate degree._

  
  


Rhodes flicked through all the documents that Jessica had provided him with. A birth announcement, MIT roster with Maya’s name on it, various clippings of Harley winning science competitions at his school, Harley at science camp, paparazzi photos of Harley, Maya, and Tony out at dinners and amusement parks and zoos. Tony always looked so incredibly happy in the photos. Jessica had even been kind (and thorough) enough to include god damn bank statements showing that Tony had a college fund set up for Harley, that Tony had funded each and every school Harley ever attended. There were even press clippings of the press announcing that Tony had been named as Harley’s godfather.  
  
Harley Keener had a GPA of 4.1, he was on his school’s decathlon team, for the most part he was a model student aside from the fact he was prone to getting into fights with a boy called Flash Thompson who seemed particularly vindictive towards a boy named Peter Parker.  
  
Rhodes tucked everything back in the the envelope. He was definitely going to have to keep an eye out on the kid, if only to make sure he doesn’t cross paths with Stane.  
  
“Sir?” Carol stepped into the room.  
  
“Yea Danvers?”  
  
“I think I found something,” she said.  
  
“About Stark?”  
  
She shot him an unimpressed look.  
  
“Not everything is about your boyfriend,” she said dryly.  
  
“It’s about Nick Fury,” she said.  
  
“I think he’s onto something,”  
  
Rhodes gestured to the chair on the other side of his desk and she sat. Whatever news she had seemed to excite her.

  
  


“Colonel Rhodes,” Rogers sounded breathless, even over the shitty satellite phone they were using.  
  
“We found him, Sir,”  
  
Rhodes sat back down in his chair, relief flooding his system.  
  
“Alive?” he asked, even though he dreaded the answer to the question.  
  
“Yes sir,”  
  
Did Rhodes detect a hint of a laugh in the Captain’s response?  
  
“He broke himself out in a giant metal suit and set fire to the base,” Rogers continued before Rhodes could demand clarification.  
  
“He’s always had a flare for the dramatic,”  
  
“There’s something else, sir,”  
  
Rhodes straightened in his chair.  
  
“What?”  
  
“There’s… there’s something in chest. I don’t know what it is. It’s round and glowing bright blue. He won’t tell us what it is, he just keeps saying he wants to go home,” Rogers said.  
  
“Then bring him home, Captain,” Rhodes ordered.  
  
“Yes sir,”  
  
Rhodes ended the call and tapped his phone gently against his desk. Tony Stark had survived Afghanistan. Obadiah wouldn’t be too pleased to hear that. He would end up making another attempt on Tony’s life, and this time Rhodey would be much better prepared to keep Tony out of harm’s way.  
  
He unlocked his phone and called up Pepper Potts.  
  
“I hope you have a good reason for calling,” she said when she answered.  
  
“He’s been found,” Rhodes said, hearing the disbelief in his own voice.  
  
There was a long silence between them.  
  
“Tony?” she asked.  
  
“Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes are with him,” he told her.  
  
“Is he ok?” she asked.  
  
“There’s… something in his chest,” Rhodes said slowly.  
  
“S-what does that mean?”  
  
“I don’t know yet,”  
  
“I’m coming with you to pick him up,” she said in a tone that suggested he best not argue with her. It killed him to do it anyway.  
  
“I don’t think that’s wise,” he said.  
  
“Excuse me?”  
  
“Stane can’t find out you’re onto him. If we show up together then he’ll suspect something,” Rhodes said to her.  
  
He could practically hear the frown on her face.  
  
“So what are you going to do then?”  
  
“I have to get him to a safe house,”  
  
On the other line he heard her let out an amused sound.  
  
“He’ll hate that,”  
  
“I can’t have Stane in a position to make another move against him,”  
  
She didn’t respond immediately, he waited for her to do so.  
  
“I’m close to ending this. SHIELD has been helping,” she started.  
  
“I don’t like that he won’t be welcomed home properly. He deserves that much,” she said.  
  
“He does,” Rhodes agreed quietly.  
  
“I hope you keep him safe, Rhodes,” she said, a heavy warning in her voice.  
  
“I hope you stay safe, Ms. Potts,” he replied.  
  
“Stane will burn. Trust me,”  
  
“I do,”

  
  


Pepper pulled to a stop in front of Maya’s house. She had no doubt in her mind that Maya would burst into tears when she heard that Tony had been found, and for the most part was ok. Pepper stepped out of her car and headed up the path to the front door.  
  
“Maya?” she called as she walked in.  
  
“Pep?”  
  
Pepper found Maya in the living room, a Lifetime movie on the tv.  
  
“They found him,”  
  
Maya shot to her feet, the blanket on her lap pooling to the ground.  
  
“Tony?”  
  
Pepper nodded, tears obscuring her vision. Maya stumbled over the blanket on her way to Pepper, pulling her friend into a hug.  
  
“Is he ok?” Maya asked, voice muffled against Pepper’s shoulder.  
  
“Yea, he’s got something in his chest, but he’s ok,”  
  
“That’s so vague!”  
  
Pepper let out a weak laugh and nodded her head. Maya took a step back from Pepper and scrubbed at her face.  
  
“Harley’s going to lose his mind,” she said.  
  
“Can we see him? When does he get in?”  
  
“Rhodes is taking him to a safe house,”  
  
Maya blinked, her head cocking to the side.  
  
“So we can’t see him?”  
  
“He doesn’t want to give Stane the opportunity to move against Tony,” Pepper said with a delicate shrug.  
  
“And how is _that_ going?” Maya asked, eyes worried.  
  
“I’m close to ending it. SHIELD wants everything, they want him to receive the maximum sentence,” Pepper said.  
  
Maya nodded, running her fingers through her hair.  
  
“Well I’m watching a ridiculous Lifetime movie, I can break out the snacks? And hopefully Harley will be home soon and we can tell him that Tony’s been found, but we can’t see him,”  
  
“That sounds good,” Pepper said as she kicked off her heels.  
  
“What’s this one about?” she asked as she and Maya sat on the couch.  
  
“Something about an evil stepmother trying to kill a rich father and possibly his kids,”  
  
“Devious,”  
  
Maya nodded in agreement and pulled the blanket over their laps. They made it through the whole movie before Harley got home.  
  
“Hey mom, Pepper,” he greeted.  
  
They both stood from the couch, glancing at each other as they did so.  
  
“They found Tony,” Maya said.  
  
Harley stared at her for a few minutes. He nodded slowly before swiping at his nose with his sleeve.  
  
“When is he getting back?” he asked.  
  
“He’s being taken to a safe house,” Pepper said.  
  
“So War Machine found him,”  
  
The women froze.  
  
“H- honey how do you know that?”  
  
Harley suddenly seemed to become very interested in the floor.  
  
“Harley,” Maya crossed her arms over her chest.  
  
“I may have confronted him,”  
  
Pepper dropped her head in her hands and Maya pinched the bridge of her nose.  
  
“Why?”  
  
“I overheard you two talking about it when Tony first disappeared,” Harley admitted.  
  
“So you tracked down a Mob Boss and confronted him?”  
  
“My Uncle was missing!”  
  
“ _Harley_!”  
  
He held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.  
  
“It was one time like two months ago! And I haven’t done anything since!” he defended.  
  
Maya shook her head.  
  
“Well yes. War Machine sent out some guys and they found Tony. He’s being taken to a safe house until we find out who did this to him,” Maya said, choosing her words carefully. The absolute last thing that she wanted was her son finding out about Obadiah and what he had done. Harley had gone out of his way to track down a god damn Mob Boss, there was no telling what kind of stunt he would pull if he knew about Obadiah.  
  
“I hope that’s soon,” Harley said quietly.  
  
“I miss him,”  
  
Maya crossed the room to hug her son, dropping a kiss to the top of his head.  
  
“Me too,” she said.

  
  


Rhodes waited for Tony, albeit a little impatiently, at the tarmac. The plane was due in any minute and Rhodes wanted to be there when Tony stepped off the plane. Just as Captain Rogers said there was something bright and round in the center of Tony’s chest. The permanent reminder of not only Stane’s betrayal, but of Rhodey’s failure to keep Tony safe.  
  
“Sour patch!”  
  
“I’m not sour,” Rhodes reminded him.  
  
Tony grinned up at him, real and beautiful.  
  
“Sure you are! How else do you explain the frown on your face?”  
  
Rhodes huffed out a small laugh as he pulled Tony into a tight hug.  
  
“Missed you,” Rhodes said quietly.  
  
“How do you have Captain fucking America and the Only Emo Kid in the Boy Band on your payroll?” Tony demanded, still tucked against Rhodes.  
  
Rogers made an offended noise as Barnes laughed his ass off.  
  
“I have friends in high places, Tones,” Rhodes said quietly.  
  
“And besides,” Rhodes added, a smile growing on his face.  
  
“I wanted it that way,”  
  
“I’m going the fuck back to Afghanistan,”  
  
Rhodes laughed and hugged Tony a little tighter. Tony shifted his grip on Rhodes and sank into him.  
  
“We gotta go Tones,” Rhodes said quietly as they parted.  
  
Tony glanced back at Rogers and Barnes, a lazy smirk growing on his face.  
  
“Cap, Emo,” he said with a half assed salute.  
  
“It’s-” Rogers was cut off by a sharp blow to the ribs from Barnes.  
  
“Tin Man,” Barnes replied with an equally lazy salute.  
  
“Oh I like him,”  
  
Tony looked up at Rhodey to find one of the most revered mob bosses in New York staring at him with soft eyes and a tiny smile on his lips. Tony ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck gently.  
  
“Captain, Sergeant, thank you very much for your service. Should you have any trouble with your higher ups for accepting this mission, send them my way,” Rhodes said.  
  
He grabbed Tony’s hand and pulled him toward the waiting car.  
  
For the first twenty minutes of the ride they spent in silence, up until Rhodes took a turn off toward Los Padres Forest.  
  
“Are we not going to Malibu?” Tony asked, craning his neck to look at the sign they just past.  
  
“No,”  
  
“So you’re kidnapping me,”  
  
Rhodes smiled softly.  
  
“I’m taking you to a safe house,”  
  
“I wanna go home!” Tony whined.  
  
“Not while Stane is out for blood,” Rhodes said, a frown twisting his features.  
  
Tony rubbed the thing in the middle of his chest.  
  
“What is it?” Rhodes asked quietly.  
  
“It’s an electromagnet. Keeps the shrapnel in my chest from getting to my heart,” Tony told him.  
  
“Shit,” Rhodes breathed.  
  
“H-how?” he asked.  
  
“A man named Ho Yinsen performed open heart surgery on me to save my life. He died in the caves,”  
  
“Shit,” Rhodes said again.  
  
“He told me not to waste my life,” Tony said.  
  
“And I don’t want to waste my life by hiding from Obie,” he added.  
  
“You’re not going to waste your life,” Rhodes promised.  
  
“You gathered the evidence, right?” he asked.  
  
“Yes,” Tony said shortly.  
  
“Then who’s the only person left at SI to help?”  
  
Tony was silent for a few moments.  
  
“How’d you get to Pepper?” he asked.  
  
“She came to me, demanded to know what had happened and offered to help. All she has to do is get the information on a usb and get it to SHIELD,”  
  
“You can’t move against Stane, Tones. He’s already onto you, let Pepper finish this,”  
  
Tony sighed quietly.  
  
“What if something happens to her?” he asked.  
  
“Your driver, Mr. Hogan has been glued to her side,”  
  
Tony seemed to relax at that.  
  
“That’s good. Happy won’t let anything happen to her,” Tony said.

  
  


The safehouse was located near Los Padres National Park. A little more forest than what Tony was used to.  
  
“This is… naturey,” he said.  
  
“Astute of you to notice,”  
  
“Why couldn’t you have a safe house in a city? Preferably one with a coffee shop near it?”  
  
“I can make you coffee,” Rhodes said as he unlocked the door.  
  
“Better be some damn good coffee,” Tony mumbled.  
  
Rhodes shook his head and led Tony into the house. There wasn’t much to the safe house, a sunny kitchen with a breakfast nook, a living room, a small bedroom with an even smaller bathroom. And in that small bathroom there was-  
  
“There’s only one bed,” Tony pointed out unhelpfully.  
  
“I know,”  
  
Tony looked at Rhodes like he doubted that Rhodes understood that there was only one bed.  
  
“And there are two of us,”  
  
“I can do elementary math too, Tones,”  
  
Tony blinked.  
  
“One bed,”  
  
Rhodes looked up at the ceiling.  
  
“So we’re sharing a bed. We share beds now,”  
  
“I’m not letting you out of my sight until we take down Stane,” Rhodey responded.  
  
“That’s just not going to fly honeypot, if anyone is taking Obadiah down, it’s going to be me,” Tony said, his face set in determination.  
  
“And don’t you _dare_ make an *NSYNC reference,” Tony added before Rhodes could say anything.  
  
They didn’t do much that first day. They watched tv and discussed what was going to happen after Stane was behind bars. Tony was adamant that he was going to shut down weapons manufacturing at his company. He wanted better for his company than just war. He wanted to go into green energy, make new and improved cell phones, prosthetics, take SI from only making weapons and make it a technological company. He had big plans for SI, and Rhodes fell just a little more in love with him.

  
  


“So you wanna tell me what happened?” Rhodes asked.  
  
Tony shrugged, fingers picking at the pillow in his lap.  
  
“Told you most of it,”  
  
“Not how you escaped,” Rhodes replied.  
  
“Rogers told me it was in a big metal suit,” he added when Tony didn’t say anything.  
  
“They wanted me to build the Jericho Missile for them. I told them I would and then I built this,” Tony said, tapping the arc reactor gently.  
  
“Yinsen helped me build the suit, it was powered by the arc reactor,” Tony’s finger stayed on the shining blue disk for a few moments.  
  
“Yinsen didn’t make it when we broke out. I torched the base and I flew out of there in that ridiculous clunky iron alloy suit,” Tony said.  
  
“Didn’t make it very far,” he added, a small smile on his face.  
  
Rhodes sat down next to him on the bed and gently bumped their shoulders together.  
  
“We’d make a pretty good team,” he said quietly.  
  
Tony looked at him, confused.  
  
“War Machine and Iron Man,”  
  
A laugh escaped Tony and he leaned against Rhodes.  
  
“I like that,” Tony said quietly.  
  
“Iron Man,”  
  
“It’s not exactly correct, the suit was actually titanium alloy,”  
  
“Right, sorry, War Machine and Titanium Alloy Man,” Rhodes corrected.  
  
“That’s much better, thanks,”  
  
Tony pushed himself to his feet and pulled the covers back.  
  
“Guess it’s time to share a bed,” he said.  
  
“You’re really fixated on this Tones,”  
  
Tony shot him a rueful grin and got into bed. The mattress wasn’t nearly as comfortable as his bed in Malibu, but it was miles better than sleeping in a fucking cave. The mattress dipped as Rhodes joined him.  
  
“We’re sharing a bed,” Tony announced.  
  
Rhodes smiled up at the ceiling.  
  
“Yep,”  
  
“We haven’t even had a date yet,”  
  
Rhodes started laughing.  
  
“What did we agree on again?” he asked quietly. Rhodes turned his head to look at Tony.  
  
“Lord of the Rings, extended edition,”  
  
“Obviously extended edition,” Tony agreed.  
  
“We’re not heathens,”

  
  


The dawn came all too soon. Tony had half a mind to stay in bed for the whole day. But if he did that he wouldn’t get coffee, and he needed coffee.  
  
“Here you are, Tones,” Rhodes said as he walked into the room with two mugs of coffee in his hands.  
  
“I figured you would want to relax,”  
  
“I love you,” Tony gasped, reaching for a mug.  
  
“I know,”  
  
Tony hugged the mug to his chest and inhaled the comforting aroma of the only drink he actually liked putting in his body. He took a sip that absolutely did not bring tears to his eyes.  
  
“This might be the best damn cup of coffee I’ve ever had,” he said, voice choked.  
  
“And you wanted a coffee shop,” Rhodes teased.  
  
Tony didn’t respond to the taunt, opting instead to take a few more sips of the coffee.  
  
“And, I thought we could watch that Lord of the Rings marathon,” Rhodes suggested.  
  
Tony almost choked on his coffee.  
  
“Honey bear are you asking me out on a date?”  
  
“Depends, are you saying yes?”  
  
“I could never say no to a date with you,” Tony replied.  
  
Rhodes grinned and offered out his hand. Tony took it and they headed out to the living room where they spent the whole day watching Lord of the Rings, and cuddling on the couch.

  
  


“Tony,” Rhodes said quietly.  
  
Tony glanced up, eyes frozen on the tv where Obadiah Stane was being taken into questioning by SHIELD.  
  
“She did it,” Tony said quietly.  
  
Rhodes let out a sigh of relief. He didn’t have to worry about Stane finding Tony. SHIELD would take care of him.  
  
“Can I go home now?” he asked.  
  
“Yea. I’m sure there are a couple people who are really eager to see you again,” Rhodes said with a smile.  
  
Tony looked back at him, a questioning frown on his face.  
  
“Your godson took it upon himself to confront me,”  
  
“God damn it Harley,” Tony whispered.  
  
“He sure is something Tony,”  
  
Tony grinned at that.  
  
“He gets it from Maya- she hasn’t come breaking down your door, has she?” he asked.  
  
“No,”  
  
“Then you’re going to get an earful from her,” Tony warned.  
  
“I certainly look forward to it. Go pack. I’ll make a few calls so Maya, Pepper, Harley, and Happy can be at your house when we arrive,”  
  
“Don’t forget about Janet,” Tony warned.  
  
“How could I ever forget about Ms. van Dyne,” Rhodes mused.  
  
Tony beamed and kissed his cheek.  
  
“Thanks honey pot,”

  
  


Rhodes watched as Tony reunited with his friends and family. Maya and Happy were the only two members of Team Stark that hadn’t confronted Rhodes for his involvement in what happened to Tony.  
  
Maya was the first to break away from the group hug to approach Rhodes.  
  
“Thank you,” she said, voice choked.  
  
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t have done to find him,” Rhodes told her, his eyes resting on Tony.  
  
Maya looped her arm through his and pulled him toward the group. Rhodes found that they were a very kind group when they weren’t threatening him. Tony wasted no time in introducing Rhodes to everyone, even though Rhodes already knew more than half of them.  
  
“Glad you took my advice Mr. Mob Boss,” Harley said quietly as Tony talked with Pepper about how she not only met Rhodes but took Stane down.  
  
“Not every day a 16 year old threatens me,” Rhodes replied.  
  
Harley grinned.  
  
“Just wanted to make sure you were going to do something to find him,” the kid replied.  
  
“Thank you, though, for finding him,” he added.  
  
Rhodes just nodded and looked back at Tony and wrapped his hand around Tony’s wrist and gave it a soft squeeze.  
  
“You, Mr. Stark, owe me a fitting,” Janet said, fishing around her purse for her measuring tape.  
  
Tony just nodded and allowed Janet to flit around him, taking his measurements and jotting things down.  
  
“So what now?” Pepper asked, eyes rimmed red.  
  
“SI is going in a whole different direction. No more weapons, I want to go into technology, green energy, I want SI to do good,” Tony told her.  
  
“I think that’s a good idea,” Janet announced as she stooped down to measure Tony’s inseam.  
  
“Is this necessary?” he asked her.  
  
“I told you that these things change. Besides. You owe me a Masquerade Ball,” she told him.  
  
She stood back up and jotted his measurements down on a notepad.  
  
“You can invite your boyfriend if you want, so long as he schedules a fitting with me,” she said.  
  
“I wouldn’t send him anywhere else, Jan,” Tony promised.  
  
She grinned at that.  
  
“Ms. Potts would you like to schedule a press conference?”  
  
“Should I let the company know about our change in direction as well?” she asked.  
  
“I think so,”  
  
“Will that be all Mr. Stark?”  
  
“That will be all Ms. Potts,”

  
  


“I hate press conferences,” Tony muttered.  
  
“You’ll be fine Tones,”  
  
“They’re going to want to know about Ob- Stane,”  
  
“You don’t owe them that. Say what you need to and end the press conference, we’ll be waiting for you when you get off stage,” Rhodes promised him.  
  
“Thanks honeybear,”  
  
Rhodes smiled softly.  
  
“Did we ever finish Lord of the Rings?” Rhodes asked quietly.  
  
“I think we both fell asleep at the end of the Two Towers,”  
  
“Then we have a date to finish,”  
  
Tony grinned, his cheeks turning pink.  
  
“Tony it’s time!” Pepper called.  
  
“Coming Ms. Potts!”  
  
Tony didn’t move for a few more moments, instead opting to kiss Rhodes before darting out of the room. Rhodes stood there mildly shellshocked for a few moments before he too stepped out of the room to watch the press conference.

  
  


“I never got to say goodbye to my father. There's questions I would've asked him. I would've asked him how he felt about what his company did, if he was conflicted, if he ever had doubts. Or maybe he was every inch of man we remember from the newsreels. I saw young Americans killed by the very weapons I created to defend them and protect them. And I saw that I had become part of a system that is comfortable with zero-accountability,”  
  
“Mr. Stark, what happened over there?” a reported interrupted.  
  
“I had my eyes opened. I came to realize that I had more to offer this world than just making things that blow up. And that is why, effective immediately, I am shutting down the weapons manufacturing division of Stark Industries,” Tony said.  
  
In front of him, the press went wild. He didn’t take any questions, he merely nodded at them and walked off the stage. Rhodes, Pepper, and Happy were waiting for him.  
  
“How are the peons reacting to the memo?” Tony asked.  
  
“They’re very excited to try new things. And don’t call them peons,” she warned as she fixed his tie.  
  
“Will that be all Mr. Stark?”  
  
“That will be all Ms. Potts,”  
  
She grinned at him.  
  
“And what about you, honey pot? What corrupted politician has captured your attention?” Tony asked.  
  
Rhodes smiled softly.  
  
“I think I might need your help again, Tones,”  
  
Tony grinned sharp and shark-like.  
  
“What do you got honey bear?”  
  
“You ever heard of HYDRA?”

**Author's Note:**

> I started working on this fic when the first round of TSB was happening and now,,, four months later,,, it's ready.


End file.
